Apple iPhone 5 spurs interest in HD voice

The introduction of the iPhone 5 and its inclusion of “cellular wideband audio” has stimulated an all-time high in page views and unique visits to HD Voice News for the month of September. Similarly, there’s been a surge of stories published around the world on what networks and carriers currently support HD voice and the new iPhone. The only downside is the spotty discussion and muddled follow-up in most of the U.S.-centered media on why the Apple iPhone 5 doesn’t “at this time” support HD voice.

Without getting into an extended statistical discussion, HD Voice News has seen a 29 percent surge in total page loads since the site was started in November 2009 and roughly the same increase in terms of unique visits.

Operators in Europe and Asia have been deploying HD voice for several years, with two or more providers in in many European countries. France Telecom and users in the Netherlands have been vocal in asking for Apple to roll out HD voice support in the iPhone, getting their wish fulfilled this week.

Numerous posts have gone up this week “confirming” HD voice support for the iPhone 5 on Europe and Australian networks. There’s been some nitpicks Down Under on voice quality delivery; it appears Telstra needs to do some network tuning between cities at the very least.

In the U.S., the big story has been how the iPhone 5 won’t support HD voice on Sprint’s network – “at this time” according to the official party line from the company. But Sprint won’t talk about future software upgrades to the iPhone to support its CDMA 1X Advanced HD voice or when Voice over LTE (VoLTE) will appear on the iPhone.

Similarly, none of the tech media is pushing Apple, AT&T or Verizon on when Apple might introduce VoLTE support – a feature that has to be coming at some point on the roadmap, given Android LTE phones are pretty much VoLTE ready with a software release. Two carriers in South Korea and MetroPCS in the U.S. are currently operating VoLTE, with most major U.S. carriers expected to turn up the service nationwide in 2013.